A person without US citizenship living in Manchester, N.H., has been arrested on felony charges that he voted illegally in three elections, including a presidential primary, authorities announced Tuesday.
Naseef F. Bryan, 34, is accused of wrongfully voting in the city’s 2023 municipal election, New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation 2024 presidential primary, and the state’s 2024 general election, according to the announcement from New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella.
Bryan was registered as a Republican for all three elections, according to the voter checklists that poll workers in Manchester’s Ward 3 used to track who had cast ballots in each election.
While a handful of jurisdictions in other states allow non-citizens to vote in local elections, that’s not the case anywhere in New Hampshire, and non-citizens voting in federal elections is illegal nationwide.
Bryan faces three state-level felonies, each punishable by a maximum sentence of three-and-a-half to seven years in prison, plus a fine of up to $4,000, according to an announcement from Attorney General John M. Formella.
The announcement did not specify Bryan’s nationality.
Bryan has filed several cases in federal court in recent years without the assistance of an attorney, including one case in which a judge said Bryan had been born in Jamaica and brought to the United States as a child more than a decade ago. The judge noted that Bryan had begun filing paperwork in 2022 in an as-yet unsuccessful effort to secure US citizenship.
Bryan wrote on social media about being a registered voter while still waiting for a hearing to attain citizenship, and he posted an image earlier this year of an “I Voted” sticker as evidence that he had voted in a federal election in New Hampshire.
It was not immediately clear whether Bryan has a defense attorney. He did not respond Tuesday to a direct message on social media, and efforts to reach him by phone were unsuccessful.
Manchester police arrested Bryan on a warrant on Friday, and his arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 22, according to records from Formella’s office.
Details of how authorities discovered the alleged fraud have not yet been released.
New Hampshire Secretary of State David M. Scanlan has said illegal voting is very rare in the state, but does happen. The New Hampshire Department of Justice has secured at least 12 convictions over roughly the past seven years, in addition to issuing cease-and-desist orders in other cases.
Those who were convicted in 2024 of wrongful voting include Troy E. Merner, a Republican who kept serving in the New Hampshire House of Representatives despite having moved out of his legislative district, and Richard Rosen, an 85-year-old who voted twice in the 2016 general election.
This year, a married Massachusetts couple, Lisa and Joshua Urovitch, pleaded guilty to voting illegally from their rental property in New Hampshire. Voter checklists identified them as a registered Democrat and an undeclared voter, respectively.
Several other Granite Staters have been fined for wrongful voting in 2024, according to DOJ records. The bulk of these cases involved otherwise-eligible voters trying to cast ballots in municipalities where they don’t reside.
A new state law, backed by Republicans, took effect after the November 2024 election to tighten voter ID requirements in New Hampshire. It requires proof of citizenship when people first register to vote.
The new law is being challenged by groups that allege it creates unnecessary barriers that will will prevent certain eligible voters from casting ballots.
Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.
